The Recession Hits College Campuses. Hard.

June 30, 2009 12:00 pm     Posted in News, Reality  Melissa - GW g+ page

fiu cheerleaders


By Melissa

There is no doubt that in some way or another, every person out there has been affected by the economy. Between businesses getting shut down, people getting laid off, or the millions who are losing their homes, the list of disasters seems endless. But we, as college students, are not immune.

We all know that there have been some crazy budget cuts for colleges, but did you know what that means for you? Any idea what might be coming next for your school?

Just ask the cheerleading team at Florida International University. Oh wait, never mind. You can’t, because as of this week, they do not have one. That’s right. The nationally recognized cheerleading team, currently ranked fourth in the country, has been eliminated as part of an effort to cut 1 million dollars from FIU’s athletic budget for the coming school year.

Pete Garcia, the director of the university’s athletics departments, said, “The economy has forced us to make some very tough choices. Unfortunately, FIU athletics is neither immune to the current economic conditions or to the fact that the university, in general, has had to cut prominent programs across the board.” And the pom pons aren’t the only thing to which the FIU students have to say goodbye, because the marching band is also being cut. The school has also eliminated degree programs, increased tuition by 15%, and has been laying off staff as a result of their $35 million budget gap!

FIU is certainly not the only school out there that has been forced to make drastic changes. Schools in Arizona aren’t doin’ so hot either, as the three state universities face a 30-percent reduction in state aid (more than $300 million dollars!). ASU is considering laying off 2,500 employees, doubling tuition, and shutting down one, or maybe even two, of its campuses. “We could eliminate the nursing school, journalism school, the law school, and the engineering school and still not meet these cuts,” Michael Crow, president of ASU stated.

Awesome.

These situations are truly awful and the consequences of them are even worse. With program cuts, students will lose the privilege of what college is all about: having the opportunity to study whatever you want. And as far as the athletic department cuts – well, for many schools, the sports, the spirit, the screaming is what brings the students together and eliminating part of this department eliminates the community aspect of college life.

BUT, life isn’t about moping. We just have to know that these things have to happen, and hopefully they are for the best. Sometimes it takes sacrifices to make things better (or, you know, keep things afloat). So, it may not be easy or ideal, but it IS an important life lesson: learn to adapt.

See, they can’t cut everything.

14 Comments on "The Recession Hits College Campuses. Hard."

  1. Vicki says:
    Tue, 30th Jun 20097:50 am 

    At the beginning of the summer, WIU announced that they were going to cut the swimming and diving programs for budget reasons, but then yesterday announced that they were not going to cut the programs. Very confusing.

  2. girl says:
    Tue, 30th Jun 20092:03 pm 

    thank god.

    cheerleading is an unneeded money suck and sport.

  3. Jess says:
    Tue, 30th Jun 20093:33 pm 

    rip marching band :(

  4. Emmie says:
    Tue, 30th Jun 20095:21 pm 

    Girl: Cheerleading is only as unneeded as any other sport.

    And thank god I'm going to be heading to a private college next year; they tend to not be as hard hit as public schools, since they've got the endowment to take care of them.

  5. gee says:
    Tue, 30th Jun 20096:49 pm 

    Emmie: Strange but true, non-for-profits are not allowed to touch endowments. I don't understand it, but they cant! Schools like Brandeis are suffering badly, closing museums and trying to sell artwork. This recession is hitting colleges and universities regardless of public and private.

  6. Emmie says:
    Wed, 1st Jul 20097:30 am 

    And yet somehow Brandeis is trying to expand… It was strange. I was offered a presidential scholarship to brandeis, so they made a huge to-do of bringing us around campus and having us eat with the big names there, and everywhere we went, they would talk about how they were financially stable and doing well despite the recession. I believed them, until I started visiting other schools, and every time the subject of Brandeis came up, one of the administrators would talk about how poorly Brandeis was doing. It was weird.

    And if they're not allowed to touch the endowments, what's the point of having them?

  7. snarktastic says:
    Thu, 2nd Jul 200910:38 am 

    gee: that's not entirely true. think before you talk [or type].

    endowments come from donations that contain a condition for how long the principal must be untouched. it's a fairly complicated legal/financial thing, but yes, endowments are able to be spent.

    however, it's enormously fiscally irresponsible to spend them outside of a long-term plan. most schools spend the interest they earn and leave the principal either intact or spend a minimal amount and replace it with interest or future donations.

    finances of large corps and non-profs are extraordinarily complicated. they can be doing "poorly" at any one time, but that's not a reason to not go, provided they haven't totally gone off the deep end [see randolph college as an example].

    emmie: schools you visited mentioned brandeis? that's inappropriate.

    if they're gonna cut something, it had BETTER be the "auxiliary" things like cheerleading and marching band before academic programs. they're not likely to cut sports – they make TONS off of them.

    interesting article, cc.

  8. Emmie says:
    Thu, 2nd Jul 20091:05 pm 

    Snarktastic: Yes, they did, but it was only in informal settings. They didn't get up at the welcome assemblies and start dissing brandeis, it was always in context of how the economy is affecting higher education, and in one-on-one or small group talks with faculty. Not as inappropriate.

    And yes, I'd rather they cut cheerleading and marching band rather than academic programs. And yes, they're more likely to cut these than sports. I openly admit this and accept it, I just find it unnecessary for girl to belittle cheerleading for no reason, when in fact it's no more of a waste than any other sport.

  9. Acne Scars Treatment says:
    Sun, 6th Sep 20093:26 am 

    Economic recession created huge unemployment rates around the world. I think the world economy is already on the road to recovery.

  10. Janet Reyes says:
    Mon, 7th Dec 20099:19 pm 

    Our country was also hit hard by the Economic Recession. At least we are seeing some signs of economic recovery now. I hope that we could recover soon from this recession.

    .z….

  11. Laundry Bag  says:
    Tue, 19th Oct 201011:42 pm 

    ecomonic recessions could really mess up great economies~".

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